NBA star Kevin Durant regained access to a Bitcoin account he opened in 2016, where BTC traded around $650. The coins sat untouched for nearly a decade after he lost his login credentials.
NBA star Kevin Durant regained access to a Bitcoin account he opened in 2016, where BTC traded around $650. The coins sat untouched for nearly a decade after he lost his login credentials.
With Bitcoin now above $117,000, his holdings have surged almost 200x. A $10,000 entry at 2016 prices is now valued near $1.8 million.
Durant’s agent, Rich Kleiman, revealed the recovery during CNBC’s Game Plan in Los Angeles, calling it one of the athlete’s most lucrative investments
Durant first bought Bitcoin while playing for the Golden State Warriors, after attending a dinner conversation that centered on crypto. He and Kleiman purchased through Coinbase, but login issues locked them out.
Kleiman confirmed no sales were made through multiple bull cycles. “We’ve never sold anything,” he said, adding that the lost access unintentionally preserved Durant’s stack during rallies and corrections.
Durant’s firm, Thirty Five Ventures, partnered with Coinbase in 2021, and the exchange has since worked with them . Coinbase said its platform includes self-service recovery tools and 24/7 support for similar cases.
With access restored, Durant now sits on Bitcoin that has surged nearly 200x since his entry.
The two-time NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist is set to play for the Houston Rockets this season after a stint with the Phoenix Suns.
Off the court, his early experiment with Bitcoin has turned into a multimillion-dollar windfall that rivals his highest-profile endorsements.
